| #632 |
|
2002 |
Perilous 632 I’m in Adelaide at the moment writing this column and the hotel stinks. Its hot and the owners of this hotel have decided that instead of a separate bathroom and laundry they’d combine them into the same room. I guess you have to pay for the executive suite to get a bath. That said, the test cricket is on over the road . . . . Down here Music Business Adelaide is taking place. This is an industry conference aimed at young and emerging artists and I’m as likely to be approached by a 14yr old country singer and her dad .(like last year) than by an electronic producer. This year’s event is being coordinated by Musichouse, a combined skill development organisation and venue project, and they have included a programme of sessions for electronic music producers and artists. The main benefit of this sort of event is to bring together disparate people who otherwise wouldn’t meet – and here at MBA the marginal presence of electronic musicians and related peoples mean that a lot of interaction happens with well established rock music heads. Having mingled with quite a few rock promoters, managers and major label folk, the disparity between the rock industry and the emerging electronic music ‘industry’ becomes glaringly apparent. Prior to this sort of contact I had thought that electronic music was growing at a rapid pace and the oft quoted “turntables are outselling guitars” actually meant something. Instead what is revealed at events like MBA is how far ‘behind’ electronic music is. Most importantly there is a terrible lack of peer criticism within Australian electronic music. This is not helped by the fact that releasing your own music is easier than ever. Material that has not been developed beyond an idea stage is getting released, and what would, elsewhere, be considered unfinished is ending up on store shelves. This not only floods the stores with average records, it also means that a lot of local artists are not being pushed to properly develop their art and ideas. The solution? I’m not sure. It seems very odd that DJ Shadow would be playing his only Sydney show on the same date as Homebake and at such a large venue as the Hordern. It becomes veen more curious that he is now playing two Melbourne shows in a more intimate venue. Surely a large proportion of Shadow’s fans now crossover with those who enjoy the mosh of Homebake? And without them can the Hordern be filled? It has been almost seven years since Shadow last toured, his last appearance I remember being at a tiny venue in Kings Cross. Back then his cut & paste techniques were still in development and Endtroducing had not been recorded or released. It should be an exciting show and hopefully he can pull off the same feeling of intimacy in the Hordern that Portishead managed several years back. The second issue of Cyclic Defrost is released to the hordes this week. Its been a bit of a constipated process getting this one out but as of the weekend you should be able to pick up a copy. It is launched at Frigid on Sunday December 1 with Electroteque from Organarchy dropping an ambient DJ set and Sub Bass Snarl doing a live soundtrack remix for John Carpenter’s 1982 remake of The Thing. When it came out 1982 it was unfairly compared to the 1950s original. Despite this, Carpenter’s version was always a favourite sci-fi thriller of mine, more than partially because of the liberties it takes with HP Lovecraft’s 1920s short story At The Mountains Of Madness in which a group of scientists chance upon an ancient buried lifeforce. It’s been 20 years since the release of Carpenter’s film and given that Carpenter delivered such a great minimalist soundtrack himself it makes sense to do a rework. Our remix will take the film sounds into electro territory – the obvious choice given Lovecraft’s influence (half-fish, half-man, The Deep Ones) on the Black Atlantean philosophies of Detroit electro pioneers Drexciya. The film runs for just under two hours and we’ll be mixing a new musical accompaniment to the whole thing start to finish from about 8pm. Yellow Peril (www.snarl.org)  Goto
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